How are you?

So, I called another wife on the boat today asked how she was. She said "fine" and asked back... I said I was "fine" too. Then, she asks if we are supposed to say that we are fabulous when people ask us or can they handle the truth? In reality, at the moment you ask how one of the wives are they may be "fine" but the bigger picture is not. Right now, for all of us with deployed husbands things really aren't at their finest for us. Especially with the recent holiday making things that more real to us that we are alone for the next 6 months. Alone with our children, this one is a tough one to swallow. I have concluded that unless you have or are experiencing the exact same thing that you really don't know how to react to the way we feel. On the day Matt left a non-military friend asked if military life was difficult. Seriously. Of course this is difficult! I don't care how you put a take on it, 6 months without your spouse is not fun no matter how many projects you think you can accomplish, how nice you think it might be to have a break from your husband, how much money you think you'll save, etc. All of things do not and will not make up for the fact that the one you love, the other half of you, is going to be living life for half of a year apart from you and your children. The time we spend apart will be lost forever, and this saddens me. Now, don't get all worried: I haven't fallen off the deep end. I am merely making note of some of my feelings. I am sure I'll have more to say later. And when you ask me how I am and I say "fine" just know that I am okay but that things are not that fine.